After struggling to find a decent seat at a showing at 3 in the afternoon, it would seem I had seriously underestimated the frenzy that The Hunger Games had thrown the world into; although I thoroughly enjoyed myself despite all of my hesitations as I watched the original — the first of three adaptations of Suzanne Collin’s brilliant dystopian vision of the American future.

Given the surprising quality of the first, it should’ve been easy, then, to see how the forthcoming sequel would stir an even larger wave of enthusiasm ($25.3 million on Thursday night alone, to be precise). To put this ridiculous number in perspective, Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the most successful midnight-opening in box office history, earned $43 million in its first wave of Thursday night showings. This film wasn’t close to topping that, but given the circumstances (this…